Sunday, June 29, 2008

Concert Stream: Dean Windemuller Live at the Four Friends Coffeehouse

Seventeen songs. We recorded the marathon setlist, and we’re putting it up for streaming here. Thanks for coming, and for those who couldn’t make it, we’re sorry you missed out and we hope these tracks will somehow share the experience. If it wasn’t for those who came, he’d be playing to an empty coffeehouse, because no one goes to a coffeehouse on a Friday night when it’s competing with a happening bar district. I said there would be free songs, so here they are. Photos and downloads will be coming soon! A BIG thanks to Josh Wienczkowski for his help recording the live audio.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Behold, A Garden

it all started with a random conversation over lunch with my blogging neighbor, emily. i can’t remember exactly how it went, but probably something like this:

me: so i’m thinking of starting a garden
emily: really? you’re so awesome!
me: gee whiz, thanks… hyuck hyuck… shucks *blush*
emily: i want to start a garden too, but our yard doesn’t have space. can i come over and garden too?
me: i know, let’s make it a community garden in our backyard between your house and my house! then you girls can come over whenever you want and work on the garden and eat the yummy veggies.
emily: and we can bring over our mint plants and grow green peppers, and onions, and broccoli, and… and… and.. and..
me: yeah yeah yeah!

and now, around 2 months later, we have this:

you can’t really see it, but seedlings are sprouting!

except for lines 2 and 3, this conversation was the inspiration for us to dig up a chunk of my backyard lawn to grow a vegetable garden. we didn’t do it by ourselves though; we got lots of help from friends and professors: our landlord, who used to work for calvin’s service learning center, gave us the ok to dig up her lawn; professor dave warners, my bio 111 teacher and a botanist, helped us plan our garden; professor warner’s colleague, professor rich nyhof, lent us his advice and rototiller, and he also gave us his used garden fence to keep out rabbits from eating our veggies; my friend, bio major, and housemate david cutter provided advice and manual labor; and emily and liz from the girls house helped dig lots of lawn, even during finals week. oh, and i haven’t mentioned our great neighbors who’ve supplied us with extra shovels when friends like emily and liz come over to dig.

Free Concert + My 21st Birthday Celebration @ GR Downtown

Thursday, June 19, 2008

My Life Likes Taking Sharp Turns

dean plays the festival of the arts w/ matt churchill + fred knapp

have you ever experienced the perfect opportunity falling in your lap? the day before, you’re thinking: “boy, wouldn’t it be fun to try _____.” then the next day, you get an email saying: “dear you, would you like to try ______?” ever since i submerged myself in music by constructing my drum studio in january, teaching my first drum lesson in America in february, and auditioning for a jazz quartet in may, i’ve been wondering what i should do with summer. with summer comes a great opportunity: exploration.

i got an email one morning from dean windemuller, a local singer-songwriter who had graduated with a music degree from wheaton’s conservatory of music a few years ago. i’d met him when i was invited over to a friend’s house for dinner last winter, and we hit it off because he was a musician, and so was i. not long after the dinner, we got together to jam, and some time later, he invited me to drum for him at one of his shows. fast-forward a month or two, and he calls me up again to drum for him at a church where he was asked to lead worship. shortly after this gig, i got the email.

i won’t summarize the email, but in a nutshell, he gave me an opportunity to work the business side of his music. so everything from promoting his shows, to booking him gigs, to managing his mailing list and fanbase - i would be in charge. i mulled it over, quickly realized that i had a pretty good skill-set for the job with my background in media, entrepreneurship, and music, and wrote him back with an invitation to come over and talk out the details in person. after a very positive meeting, i decided to hop on board with a start date set for the beginning of june.

june arrived, and we set our priority list. one, i needed to book him shows. two, i needed to promote his gig at the elbo room in chicago on june 30 and get some people to go. through some very fortunate circumstances, i booked dean to play the Festival of the Arts in downtown Grand Rapids the first weekend of june. i called up fred knapp to see if he wanted to be dean’s drummer for the gig, and to my surprise and delight, he agreed. so i managed to book a show a few days after starting the job, which was definitely encouraging. now i’m working on promoting dean’s chicago show in late june. boy, what a ride!

if you dig his music and would like to hear from him, shoot an email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and we’ll add you to the mailing list. you’ll get free tracks, access to exclusive content, and news on past and upcoming shows.